The Kansas City Star Kansas City, Mo.

6.22.13

Neighborhood ceremony honors highway

worker killed by drunken driver

June 22

By KEVIN COLLISON

The Kansas City Star

Clifton J. Scott, a highway safety worker struck down on Interstate 70 by a drunken driver last

September, was remembered by neighbors and colleagues on a quiet street outside his former

home Saturday morning, his name now memorialized at the gentle bend at 55th Terrace and

Rinker Road.

“This is for the people who may not remember him and

hopefully it may keep somebody from making a bad

decision and hurting somebody,” said Chris Redline,

assistant district engineer for the Missouri Department of

Transportation.

Scott’s sister, Xavier Estelle, who helped raise her little

brother and called him “Big Daddy,” said his sudden death

robbed her of the chance to say goodbye.

“It hurts that someone could be so careless and mow down my brother,” she told the audience of

neighbors, MoDOT colleagues and others gathered under a shady maple tree.

Later, Estelle helped pull the wrapping off the new sign renaming that section of the Kansas City

street as “Honorary Clifton J. Scott Place.”

Scott, a 15-year MoDOT veteran, died about 2:50 a.m. Sept. 21 when a 35-year-old man

allegedly drove through barriers set up by first responders, striking Scott before he could move

out of the way. He was taking pictures of the scene when he was hit near the Lee’s Summit Road

exit.

Later this year, a stretch of I-70 between Noland Road and Lee’s Summit Road will be renamed

the Clifton J. Scott Memorial Highway, and his highway department colleagues are raising the

$2,400 needed for two signs.

But on this morning, the Coachlight Square neighborhood gathered to remember a guy who used

to climb up on roofs to blow out leaves and was a good friend.

The event, which drew about 100 people, started with organizer Theresa Thompson saying that

“September,” a song by Earth, Wind & Fire, was one of Scott’s favorites. A recording of that

rousing anthem then kicked off the hour-long event. The Rev. Charles Briscoe brought the

emotional tone back to a somber note.

“Clifton died in order to make things safe for us,” he told the group. “He laid down his life for us

so that we may have safety on our highways.”

Capt. Aaron McNabb of the Independence Fire Department was there the night Scott was killed.

He’d gotten to know the affable highway safety worker during the previous five years at accident

investigations.

“He was one of the nicest people you’d hope to meet,” McNabb said. “The horrible thing about

that night was when I saw Clifton’s hand, I knew it was him. I struggle with it every day.”

Monique Banks, Scott’s fiancee, sobbed as she remembered learning about his death.

“I woke up in that home by myself screaming and hollering until his big sister came,” she

recalled.

In the Photo: Jill Toyoshiba | The Kansas City Star Burnut Woods hugged Xavier Estell, Clifton

J. Scott’s sister, after the street signs designating 55th Terrace between Rinker Road and Wallace

Avenue in his memory were unveiled Saturday.